This specification relates to providing information relevant to user search queries.
Internet search engines identify resources, e.g., Web pages, images, text documents, and multimedia content, in response to queries submitted by users and present information about the resources in a manner that is useful to the users.
Users of search engines are often looking for an answer to a specific question, rather than a listing of resources. For example, users may want to know what the weather is in a particular location, what the definition of a particular word is, how to convert between two time zones, or the product of multiplying two numbers.
An answer box is a formatted presentation of content that is relevant to the query. For example, if the user's query refers to weather in a particular location, the answer box can include a forecast of weather in the particular location. An answer box has a category that is one of a predefined group of categories, and is formatted according to a template specific to its category. An answer box can also be associated with code that defines how content for the answer box is obtained. The code can be, for example, scripts or code identifying a back end server from which the content is received.
Some search engines present an answer box in response to a query when the search engines determine that both the category of the answer box, and the content of the answer box, are relevant to the search query. However, these search engines require a user either to enter a specific, complete phrase that triggers the answer box, or to explicitly submit a search request to the search engine, before an answer box is presented.